FLAMINGOS-2

FLAMINGOS-2 is a Near-Infrared wide field imager and multi-object spectrometer for use on Gemini-South. It was constructed by the University of Florida Astronomy Department. FLAMINGOS-2 was first delivered to Gemini in July 2009, was refurbished by the Gemini engineering team, and returned to commissioning in December 2011. In February 2012, the instrument's large collimator was found cracked. This lens and its holder have been replaced. In addition, we have revised and refurnished all lens holders, changed the detector fanout board, re-aligned the OIWFS, and re-aligned the entire optics. The instrument started queue and classical science observations in 2013B. At this point, we only offer the imaging and longslit spectroscopy observing modes. We expect to offer the MOS mode in 2015.

Potential PIs should note that the instrument is now delivering uniform image quality across the whole field. The point spread function, which excludes the effect of seeing, has a full-width half-maximum of 0.36 arcsec on and off-axis. JH and HK grisms provide an average resolution of 950 across 75% of the spectral range and the R3k grism provides an average resolution of 2600 across 75% of the J, H or Ks spectral ranges. We urge future PIs to check the Image Quality and the Grisms links for more up-to-date info.

FLAMINGOS-2 provides Near Infrared (0.95-2.4 micron) imaging capabilities over a 6'.1 diameter circular field, and multi-object NIR spectroscopy at maximum resolutions R = 1200-3000 for objects within a 2'x6' quasi-rectangular field. In the future, FLAMINGOS-2 will work in conjunction with the facility multi-conjugate adaptive optics (GeMS) system to provide imaging and MOS spectroscopy of the 2' MCAO corrected field. A further upgrade to install a dual-etalon tunable filter system has been proposed but is not scheduled yet.

For guiding, FLAMINGOS-2 has an on-instrument wavefront sensor (OIWFS) to provide guiding information to the telescope by measuring a nearby star. The OIWFS contains a 80x80-pixel Marconi CCD sensitive from 0.3 to 0.85 microns.

The following are examples of the type of observations carried out during the commissioning runs in December 2011 and January 2012.

This is a false color image of NGC 2442 produced by combining J (200 sec), H (475 sec), and Ks (200 sec) band images. The observations were made in December 2011 with median seeing of 0.6 arcsec in Ks.

This is an example of a long slit spectrum (1200 sec on source with the R3000 grism and K band filter) of NGC 1808.

This is an example of a raw (left) and sky-subtracted (right) MOS spectra obtained for 47Tuc (600 sec on source). The spectra were obtained with the R3K grism and the Ks filter.

The current web pages present an overview of FLAMINGOS-2's expected capabilities in order to support long-range planning in the observing community. Further information is continously being added to these pages.

The Instrument Scientist for FLAMINGOS-2 is Ruben Diaz. Gemini staff who support F2 include P. Gomez, M. Schirmer and K. Silva.